["The fine falcons, ‘with red breasts and swift of flight,’ come from Pariz.  They are, however, very scarce, two or three only being caught every year.  A well-trained Pariz falcon costs from 30 to 50 tomans (12_l._ to 20_l._), as much as a good horse.” (Houtum-Schindler, l.c. p. 491.) Major Sykes, Persia, ch. xxiii., writes:  “Marco Polo was evidently a keen sportsman, and his description of the Shahin, as it is termed, cannot be improved upon.”  Major Sykes has a list given him by a Khan of seven hawks of the province, all black and white, except the Shahin, which has yellow eyes, and is the third in the order of size.—­H.  C.]

NOTE 6.—­We defer geographical remarks till the traveller reaches Hormuz.

[1] A learned friend objects to Johnson’s Hundwaniy = “Indian Steel,” as
    too absolute; some word for steel being wanted.  Even if it be so, I
    observe that in three places where Polo uses Ondanique (here, ch.
    xxi., and ch. xlii.), the phrase is always “steel and ondanique.” 
    This looks as if his mental expression were Pulad-i-Hundwani,
    rendered by an idiom like Virgil’s pocula et aurum.

[2] Kenrick suggests that the “bright iron” mentioned by Ezekiel among the
    wares of Tyre (ch. xxvii. 19) can hardly have been anything else than
    Indian Steel, because named with cassia and calamus.

[3] Literally rendered by Mr. Redhouse:  “The Indians do well the combining
    of mixtures of the chemicals with which they (smelt and) cast the soft
    iron, and it becomes Indian (steel), being referred to India (in
    this expression).”

[4] In Richardson’s Pers.  Dict., by Johnson, we have a word Rohan,
    Rohina (and other forms).  “The finest Indian steel, of which the most
    excellent swords are made; also the swords made of that steel.”

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE CITY OF CAMADI AND ITS RUINS; ALSO TOUCHING THE CARAUNA ROBBERS.

After you have ridden down hill those two days, you find yourself in a vast plain, and at the beginning thereof there is a city called CAMADI, which formerly was a great and noble place, but now is of little consequence, for the Tartars in their incursions have several times ravaged it.  The plain whereof I speak is a very hot region; and the province that we now enter is called REOBARLES.

The fruits of the country are dates, pistachioes, and apples of Paradise, with others of the like not found in our cold climate. [There are vast numbers of turtledoves, attracted by the abundance of fruits, but the Saracens never take them, for they hold them in abomination.] And on this plain there is a kind of bird called francolin, but different from the francolin of other countries, for their colour is a mixture of black and white, and the feet and beak are vermilion colour.[NOTE 1]